Well, since I wasn’t too keen on the 10 Minute Solution Game for the Wii, I was reluctant to buy the new Gold’s Gym Dance Workout without seeing any reviews first – despite the fact that it was the game I was most interested in out of the upcoming titles. But, I found myself at my local Gamestop store on the day it was released anyway. The game wasn’t out on the shelf, but when I asked about it at the desk, the cashier pulled a copy out of the drawer. So, here I am. I’ve only played it a few times and haven’t tried every lesson yet. This isn’t a complete review but I wanted to capture my first impressions of the game.

Let’s get started.

The Latin Dance and Cardio Boxing lessons are done workout video style with cueing – no scrolling bar like Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout or other targets like other boxing games. The timing of the cues felt right to me, but I was often watching the lead instructor instead of listening to the vocal cues. There is also a pop up image in the lower right corner showing you what combo is coming up next. The remotes also give feedback, so you feel a vibration when you hit a move correctly. Correct moves are shown on the left side of the screen, with a green “Great” – or red “Miss” when you miss them. For now, I like that the remote gives you feedback – but I’m pretty sure that feature can be turned off, if desired. The controls feel very accurate in the dance and boxing lessons – though there is a slight delay between your move and the movement on the screen. This delay seems consistent throughout though, so once I knew the timing it wasn’t difficult to be successful with many of the exercises and games. I like the music better than Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout, but I wish the music was more selectable. Each song is assigned to a different difficulty and activity, including the tutorials. So, if you want to dance to Good Vibrations, for example, you can only do so during the dance tutorial. I also found some of the song assignments curious. As in, I didn’t feel very empowered doing a cardio boxing lesson to Material Girl, heh. And it seemed like many of the advanced songs weren’t recognizable titles. A complete song list is given in the review section at Amazon.

As far as difficulty is concerned, I found the game pretty doable. And while I’ve discovered that I enjoy dancey video games, I usually don’t like complex choreography and dancey video workouts - since I’m uncoordinated with no rhythm. But, by focusing on the arm movements I was able to score very well in the dance and boxing lessons that I tried out. It reminded me a lot of We Cheer 2 in that regard – lots going on and lots to work up to, but I could still get a good score without adding in any fancy footwork yet (or at all, if that’s how I want to roll). I also found it quite active with the potential to get a good sweat, and think it could provide a pretty decent workout. There is an option to create your own workout and string together several lessons and/or mini games (I think you can select up to 6), so I look forward to trying out that feature to see how quickly the activities transition. One amusing feature is that after each activity, it shows your score by how many (inflated) calories you burned and represents it with some kind of food or drink. I found myself paying attention to see what the picture would be each time.

The Mini Games offer a lot of variety, though they are quite short. You can select a time of either 1 minute, 30 seconds or 2 minutes, 30 seconds for each game.

Matador shows your avatar in some kind of alley -with bulls racing at you. You need to dodge them by swinging the remote from side to side. I got trampled a few times, but I also lost interest in this one pretty quickly.

Bull Ride was interesting, but I’m not sure yet if it is me or the controls that need work. You are supposed to compensate your avatar’s balance by leaning the remotes, but I was thrown off the bull repeatedly and my twisting and leaning didn’t seem to be doing anything. But, it’s too early to say for sure. I need more time on that one.

Canoe was kind of neat – you paddle down river using the remotes in a paddling fashion, and the scenery is nice. Then, an alligator appears and latches on to your boat! You are supposed to be able to shake the remotes somehow to get the gator to release, but I wasn’t able to do so. Again, I need more practice at that one!

Sword Fight was pretty fun – but is very similar to the sword games from Wii Sports Resort where you chop things up in various directions. Except, sometimes there is a Chinese star thrown at you to block or duck from. The time delay in the controls was noticeable for me here, so I needed to adjust my strategy a bit to improve my accuracy.

Marathon is your usual running game, like in Jillian’s 2010 game. But, here you might be grabbed and pulled to the ground by a lion that is nearly twice your size. Seriously. And I’m not sure how you are supposed to out run them, as I was shaking the remotes as fast as I could and I was still getting caught by lions. Not sure how often I’ll try lion running, but it might make a nice sprint interval when I choose to create my own workout.

Jump Rope is you trying to jump a rope that is being twirled by two people – with four other people watching you. I’m about as good at this as real jump rope (as in, not at all) so I need to work on my timing with this one. I’m interested in trying to get better at this to see if the stakes are raised, like more ropes or something. At one point I jumped like 5 times in a row – and I thought one of the spectators was rushing me (I had just been chased by lions, after all) but he was joining in, which totally threw me off and made us both trip on the rope, heh.

Boxing was the one I was most looking forward to from the screen shots – Kangaroo Boxing, that is! But, I found the kangaroo a bit too cute to want to hit, plus there is a baby kangaroo that pops out of the pouch now and then, making me even less eager to punch. I wish the kangaroo would have been holding punch mitts instead. The cues were new here, too – random red or blue gloves (left or right) popping up, showing you what type of punch to do. And it’s split into offense and defense sections, and I haven’t figured out the defensive moves very well yet. Perhaps in time I’ll be willing to fight back more after being pummeled by said cute kangaroo…

On to Karate. Karate was my favorite Mini Game during my first go round with all of them. You just punch left or right, or chop down on various objects. But the coolest part for me was how responsive the controls were to your speed. The faster you punched or chopped, the more powerful and damage inducing your hit would be to the wood planks, vases, watermelon – etc. It reminded me of how you can vary the power of your hits during the target punching in EA Sports Active. I can see how I could work up quite a sweat (or injure myself, heh) using the hard punches in this game. Well done, Ubisoft.

Balance board support is also offered for the Mini Games, but I like that you are still able play all of the Mini Games without the board as well. Bull Ride, Canoe, Jump Rope, and Boxing all have a balance board option, but I haven’t explored that feature yet. Perhaps the balance board will improve my bull riding skills. So, overall I was pretty pleased with this game – and there is a lot more for me to explore. I’m not sure yet if there are more features to be unlocked, but whether there is or not, I think this is a nice addition to Wii exercise game genre.

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This game has the same name and nearly the same cover as the 10 Minute Solution dvd Knock Out Body with Jessica Smith. I really enjoy that workout, so I was optimistic about this game and bought it before seeing any reviews – or many details at all, for that matter. My first thought on the game is that it’s rather clunky. Bear with me while I try to explain the way the game is set up. And I’ll also note that I haven’t tried any of the balance board activities yet.

There are 16 different activities, each of them 5 minutes long. The activities aren’t exactly all different but I’ll get to that, too. All are unlocked at start up, and it doesn’t appear that you will earn more activities – or outfits, songs, new levels, etc. At the main menu, you can select Instant Workout, Custom Workout, or My Fitness Plan. With Instant Workout, the game seems to randomly select two of the workout games. So, you can get started quickly, but you only have control over your environment, difficulty level, and music track. In Custom Workout, you get to select two activities of your choice to play back to back. If you haven’t played the activity previously, it automatically starts with a training session. You can skip the training session from the pause menu, but I’m not sure if it will start with the training session again if you don’t finish training. My Fitness Plan lets you select six different activities, so you would get the longest workout using this option.

The transition between the workouts is a bit slow, and the music isn’t anything special. But, given the price and the fact that 10 Minute Solution isn’t known for it’s music I wasn’t too surprised about that – the graphics aren’t that great either. You have the option to use two remotes instead of the remote/nunchuk pairing. Selecting activities is also awkward, since the activities are represented by somewhat obscure icons, with no description appearing unless you select one – so you can’t wand over something to find out what it is. You need to select it, and if you’re in the two activity limit mode, it kicks out one of your other choices. Seems like adding a few extra words for the description would have been helpful. I’m also confused as to why Jessica Smith’s name is on this. There it is a still image of her with fitness tips and between screens, but this game has no resemblance at all to her Knock Out Body workout that the cover photo and title are taken from. There is a bonus section on the disc that appears to be the abs workout from Knock Out Body, but it just feels out of place. A shame, since I really like that dvd workout and Jessica as a lead. I just don’t understand why this game is supposed to be similar to that workout.

On to the activities…

Boxing

There are six levels of boxing, each increasing in difficulty and amount of moves used. So that counts as six different activities, even though I would call it one. I tried two (or three?) levels. The format is very similar to Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout, in that uses the scrolling boxing glove format to tell you what move to do. Trouble is, there isn’t a voice prompt telling you cross, hook, uppercut – like in the Gold’s Gym game. And since all of the various Wii boxing games use a slightly different graphic for punches, and I don’t have a lot of patience for Wii tutorials, I was a bit confused about some of the moves. The good thing is that like Gold’s Gym, it’s very forgiving and doesn’t really know the difference between hooks, crosses, and punches and gives you credit for anything similar, heh. On the downside, it took me quite a while to figure out how to get a “bob” to register. I tried all sorts of up, down, and around movements at various speeds and was stuck on “bob” for a while in training. I got to hear all the variations of “keep trying” from the trainer – of which there aren’t very many. Some were funny though, like “I don’t know what that was, but you better try again”. Anyway, after much screwing around, I did figure it out – though it’s nothing like an actual bob. As soon as the down arrows (the graphic for “bob”) get to the start of the target box (like in Gold’s Gym) you need to thrust the remotes quickly up a few inches, then quickly snap them down about the same distance, or slightly more, before the arrow graphic exits the target box – in order produce a significant change for the Wii to detect. Figuring out this pattern increased my accuracy on this move from 0% to more like 85% and up. Makes wonder if I’ll find more puzzles like this to figure out when there are more moves added in. So, to me the boxing activities were similar to Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout, but the controls don’t work as well – and it doesn’t seem like you earn points or money or anything to unlock more features in the game.

AerobicsThis appears to be all balance board stuff – all step aerobics. Again, I’ll call this one activity with six levels. The strange thing about section is that the obscure icons representing the different levels look to be yoga poses. I didn’t have the balance board out, but oddly enough it lets you start these activities, and then seems to run by itself while you stand there – even though it knows you aren’t using the board. Plus, I’m not a much of a step gal – and the Wii versions I’ve played with so far haven’t been fun for me, so this section doesn’t really interest me much.

Mixed GamesThere are four different activities in this section, sort of. They are Defender, Badminton, Disc Grab, and Pugil Stick. Defender is your trainer throwing volleyballs toward you, and you need to return them by flailing your appropriate arm – or ducking out of the way. You’re not playing volleyball, there’s no net – just hitting or ducking the ball and the trainer keeps throwing new balls. Trouble with this one is that I couldn’t figure out the prompt timing – there are words on the bottom of the screen, but I didn’t know if that was what just happened or what was coming. I never knew when to duck, and am not sure if it was me or the game. My attention span didn’t last a full training session with this one. Badminton is what it sounds like – controls were pretty responsive, but I got bored quickly. Oh, and you need to hit the shuttlecock over the net, but then your trainer hits a new one to you. No volley action or need to hit it a certain way to keep things going – probably why the controls seemed to work well. Hee… Disc Grab is a weird one. It requires the flailing arm action of Defender to grab discs, but optionally uses the balance board. Even without the board, there were the animated feet prompting you to use the board while grabbing discs being thrown by your trainer. Didn’t like this one much. So, best of this bunch is Pugil Stick. BUT, it’s simply the same as boxing, except that your character has a pugil stick instead of gloves. Same scrolly thing with action box, Same weirdness with “bob”, same punchy-type moves required to make your character hit with the pugil stick. I liked the interaction of the sticks with the trainer, but it’s pretty difficult to watch the interaction and still hit the moves on time. So really, the summary of this section is arm flail with ducking, arm flail, arm flail with optional feet added in, and boxing veiled as pugil sticking.

Bottom LineWell, I’ve played worse, but there are much better games out there, namely Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout since boxing is the only decent offering here, in my humble opinion. Also, since EA Sports Active and More Workouts are on sale so often – they are both much better than this game for sporty stuff. And I love the boxing offerings from the first EA Sports Active, for that matter. I had hope for Pugil Stick, but if you’re looking to get your inner American Gladiator on, the Joust in Celebrity Sports Showdown is a lot more fun, heh. You even get to push the other guy off the platform into the water and everything. Or even the swordplay in Wii Sports Resort – similar swing/smash style. I do dig all things Wii boxing (except Showtime Boxing<<<—this one is really bad ), so I’ll probably hang on to it for the time being. Oh, and as far as getting an actual workout from this one? Eh, I doubt it, especially if you are a regular exerciser. When the combos get closer and faster in boxing you might be able to sweat a bit – and weighted gloves might help burn some extra calories, but since I usually use my Wii as fun bonus activity anyway, effort level is never a big consideration for me. Overall, I found this to be a disappointing offering from 10 Minute Solution and Activision – and probably not worth the money unless you rent it out of curiosity or find it in the bargain bin.

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Disclosure: I was sent two samples of Protein Freeze at no cost for review. However, this in no way influences my opinion of the product, nor do I receive any benefit if you purchase it.

When I first heard about Protein Freeze, I was quite curious about it.  I enjoy smoothies (protein or not) regularly, especially during the warmer months. I’ve been using protein powder in my smoothies for many years now, and have tried quite a few different kinds.  I’ve also tried it in many forms – ice cream, pudding, bars, etc. I’ve had various outcomes with protein ice cream, some were good but others were…too icy, too hard, too weird, etc. Would Protein Freeze simplify the process – and taste like ice cream? I was looking forward to finding out.

My sample came with a flyer providing serving and preparation instructions, as well as ideas for mix-ins. I kept things simple by following the basic directions, which say to mix the entire packet with 2/3 cup of water as well as 2 teaspoons of any nut butter. That was interesting, as I had not used nut butter in other versions of protein ice cream unless I was going for a variation of a peanut butter flavor.  Out of curiosity, I decided to make a control batch, using what I had on hand – Met-Rx Chocolate Ultramyosym Whey. I weighed out the same amount of Met-Rx that was provided in the Protein Freeze packets and followed the same preparation instructions using natural peanut butter so I could compare the outcome.

I mixed up each batch in my trusty Ninja Blender, and poured them into single serving dishes for freezing. I also took a small taste of the Protein Freeze before it went into the freezer, and thought it was pretty much what I would expect from most of the other protein powders that I’ve tried. It didn’t have too much of an aftertaste though, so that was a good thing. I was more interested in the texture after freezing.

The next day…

The Verdict

Well, magic protein ice cream? Not quite, as the directions also tell you that you need to let it stand at room temperature or briefly put it in the microwave to thaw. I found that 20 seconds in the microwave was about right for me, as shown in the photo above. I think the peanut butter definitely helped to give it a smoother texture. I wouldn’t call it ice cream texture exactly, but the result was certainly less icy than I’ve had with certain recipes before – and certainly able to be eaten with a spoon. The flavor was good, and I like that they provide lots of recipe ideas on how to change things up. And when compared to the Met-Rx the texture was different, a bit more ice-cream-like than the Met-Rx – though I liked the flavor equally well from all of them.

Bottom Line?

Protein Freeze wasn’t quite what I was expecting, since I didn’t realize that you needed to add some sort of nut butter to achieve the ice-cream-ish results.  I was hoping that this was an all-in-one type product that didn’t require any add-ins unless you wanted to change the flavor.  But, despite that I thought the flavor was as good as any other protein powder that I like. Plus, it makes a tasty, guilt-free (and filling) treat on a hot day. So, overall I thought it was a good product.  Want to try some for yourself? Sign up for a free sample – shipping & handling charges apply. Thanks, Protein Freeze for letting me review your product.

Click on the images below to read the nutrition information, as well as some bonus recipes.

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Well, as much as I enjoyed the PowerFit Harmony workouts, I’m getting a bit burned out on reviewing them, and feel like I’m starting to sound monotonous. Not to mention starting to procrastinate on writing the reviews… So, to be fair to myself as well as to the workouts, I’m going to take a break and talk about other things for a bit. I will eventually finish reviewing the rest of the workouts, but I want to talk about some other workouts and things right now.

So…onward!

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Pure Power is the second core workout of the three core workouts offered in the PowerFit Harmony series. This 20 minute workout consists of both standing and floor work for the core, and is divided by a static stretching segment that could also benefit core strength. It has a similar format to Body Balance, but uses some different exercises to give some good variety to your core workouts. While I do prefer floor work, I also enjoyed the standing work in Pure Power. The music was also very pleasant – even soothing. And as I’ve come to expect from Stephanie’s PowerFit and PowerFit Harmony workouts, she cues well and is friendly and encouraging throughout.

I didn’t find this to be extremely challenging, but didn’t expect it to be. The static stretch in the middle of the workout was a nice way to break the workout up, and I felt like time really flew by. My core felt nicely warmed and stretched after finishing this workout, and it was a nice add on to my cardio workout that day. So, again – another nice offering from Stephanie Huckabee’s PowerFit Harmony series.

The exercises…

Warm up -
~ 3 minutes of side to side shifts, alternating overhead arm reaches, knee lifts, kick to reverse lunge, side step outs with an arm sweep

Standing work
Holding band in front with both hands, tap side to side while twisting at the waist; side to side twist with knee up, then with arms overhead circle upper body down and around; back to side to side twists and repeat entire sequence

Static stretching segment, no band ~4 minutes

Floor work
Seated crunch, with band around feet for extra resistance; supported v-sit with alternating knee-ins; crunches; oblique crunches while raising legs; pulsing double crunches; crunches with legs flat; extend opposite arm and leg while on all fours

Stretch – ~ 2 minutes of stretches targeting the core

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Power Up is the second of the three 20 minute cardio workouts that is included in the PowerFit Harmony set. It has a slightly different format than Move It, and I think it was a bit more challenging, too. There are two distinct segments in the workout – floor cardio and a step inspired section. The floor cardio is very straight forward, and easy to intensify by adding impact. The step inspired section uses the band in place of a step, like in Move It, but adds a few new combos to the mix.

I think I liked this workout a bit more than Move It, since the combos were longer and made it feel like I could add more intensity. And like I did in Move It, I grabbed the top of my small step to use in place of the band during the step section. I also felt like she built the combos with just the right amount repetition, without making it feel monotonous. I’m looking forward to seeing what the last cardio workout from PowerFit Harmony has in store, too.

Warm up -
~ 4 minutes of various arm moves combined with hamstring curls, step touch, marching, lunges, knee ups

Floor Cardio
Step touch with various arms, hamstring curls, grapevines, sambas, step knee with repeaters
Repeat the above combo three more times

Stop work, using the band in place of a step
Basic right, basic left, travel side to side with basic step, step knee and repeaters, v-step, front taps, heel touch, heel touch front to back, pivot taps, pivot knee, Charleston step kick
Repeat the above combo a few times, building slowly and taking it from the top a few times

Stretch -
~ 2 minutes of low intensity taps and marches to bring down the heart rate, squats, side lunges, and a few lower body stretches

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Body Balance is a 20 minute workout from Powerfit Harmony that offers a nice variety of exercises to work your core. I normally prefer to keep my core work to about 10 minutes, and like to do it as an add on to a cardio workout. But, I did this workout after 30 minutes of treadmill intervals and enjoyed it well enough. I also prefer floor work to standing abs work, but Stephanie offers a nice variety here, making the standing abs work tolerable, even likeable.

I did like the balance work during the first part of the workout. I may not be very coordinated, but I have pretty good balance, heh. I also liked the variety of crunches she used, and the planks section reminded me once again that I really need to spend more time on planks one of these days. So, it was a nice change to my normal abs routines, and as usual, Stephanie is pleasant, encouraging, and cues well throughout – making this another good choice for many fitness levels. I’m looking forward to seeing what she has to offer in the other PowerFit Harmony core workouts.

The break down:

Warm up -
~5 minutes of various arm movements combined with side steps, squats, front toe taps, knee ups, marching, side lunges, etc followed by some dynamic stretching

Standing section
Hold band in front, balance on one foot while reaching opposite foot to the rear, lifting and lowering arms

Samba step, holding band in front, twisting to the side with each step, varying the height of your arms

Floor work
Crunches, oblique crunches, toe touches – with legs at 90 degrees, reverse crunches, leg circles with feet to the ceiling, crunches with pulses

Superman raises and holds, planks on knees, planks on toes, push up planks on knees, push up planks on toes, spine rolls from knees

Stretch
~ 2 minutes of low back/core, hip flexor, and hamstring stretches

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Strong Pull, from Powerfit Harmony, is a 20 minute workout that focuses on the back, biceps, inner thighs, and hamstrings. This was another pleasant workout! It was a bit unexpected to see some shoulder work in a “pull” workout, and since it was there – I wish there would have been more, since this seems to be the counterpart to the Strong Push workout. And Strong Push doesn’t have any shoulder work, either. Hopefully there will be more shoulder work in Upper Body Blast.

I liked the plie squats with the foot sweep, and am always surprised by how much I can feel that dragging motion in my inner thighs. The overhead band pull outs felt good, too. I also enjoyed the seated rows, since that’s one of my favorite exercises – though I really should have used multiple bands at once to increase the difficulty for that move, heh.

The breakdown:

• Warm Up
  ~3 minutes of various arm movements added to marching, side steps, squats, plie squats, and side lunges.
• One arm back row, with band under opposite foot
• Reverse lunges with pulses and band under the foot
• Side lunges with band under opposite foot, with a one arm upright row
• Biceps curls to the side, almost diagonal to the body
• Plie squats, sweeping feet inward and keeping foot in contact with the floor; changing to sweeping kicks to opposite side
• Band pull outs – band overhead, pull outward and down on band while lowering your arms to shoulder height; changing to one arm alternating pulldowns from the overhead position
• Standing hamstring curl, combined with a biceps curl with the band under the opposite foot
• Standing oblique crunches with band under one foot, adding an overhead reach with opposite hand
• Standing alternating lateral raise, both feet on band, changing to front raises
• Reverse lunge, raising arms to the front; curtsy lunges, raising arms to the front
• Seated rows with band around feet
• Lying leg lifts with band around feet and opposite foot on top of band
• Reverse crunches; adding arm pulls toward the end
• Cool down
  ~ 2 minutes of stretching

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Strong Push is a sculpting routine that focuses on chest, triceps, butt, and outer thighs from Stephanie Huckabee’s Powerfit Harmony. Again, all you need for this workout is the included resistant band. However, many of the exercises could translate easily to dumbbells, too.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this workout, and the break down is pretty straight forward. It was pleasant and the exercises flowed well from one to the next. I thought Stephanie did a nice job with the original Powerfit, but I think she’s even more relaxed and natural in the Powerfit Harmony workouts, so kudos to her for improving on an already nice product!

It breaks down like this:

• Warm up
  ~3 minutes of various arm movements added to marching, step touch, side to side squats, etc
• Squats and pulse squats, holding the band while standing on it
• Side to side squats with a side abduction and a chest press with the band across the back
• Triceps kickbacks, standing on the band
• Regular and wide marches, squats and pulse squats
• Lunges, alternating front to back, with a knee up and side twist
• Standing leg abductions, with band underneath stationary foot
• Front kicks, balancing on on leg at a time
• Push ups
• Kneeling kick backs with band around foot
• Kneeling leg lifts with band around foot
• Lying chest press with band behind the back, adding in a bridge
• Lying triceps press with band behind back
• Lying chest flye into a crunch, with band behind the back
• Side planks, adding a pulse at the end
• Cool down
  ~2 minutes of quick stretches – quads, triceps, and chest

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Cardio – Move It is the first disc in Stephanie Huckabee’s PowerFit Harmony series. All of the PowerFit and PowerFit Harmony workouts are 20 minutes long, including the warm up and cool down – great for those time pressed days! The only equipment you need is the resistance band that comes with the set, and with this cardio workout I’d say even that is optional. You could easily do this workout with no equipment at all. I’m rather choreography challenged, though since getting a Wii, I’m realizing that it’s mostly a lack of patience that does me in with more complex workouts. With active video games, I’m more motivated to practice and try to improve – even with dancey type games. But, for workout videos, I really prefer to not have to think too much, heh.

Anyway, the exercises in this workout are very easy to follow and all low impact. And, because the workout is quite simple, choreography-wise, it would also be easy to increase the intensity by adding impact and extra oomph to many of the exercises. Stephanie’s cueing is excellent in this workout, making it easy for even a step challenged gal like me to follow the step inspired combos. She also builds everything in a logical way, slowly adding to each combo and repeating short segments before going through the whole routine from the beginning. I suppose this could feel a bit repetitive to some, but since the workout is only 20 minutes, it doesn’t feel like a lot of repeating for each segment – but I pretty much prefer repetitive cardio anyway.

There are three distinct cardio segments with different styles, but they transition smoothly and you keep moving throughout the entire workout. The band isn’t used in the first section (I’ll call it combos 1 and 2), which is standard floor cardio with lots of arm movement. The second segment (combos 3 and 4) is step inspired, using the band on floor as a guide for stepping. I quickly grabbed my small step and used just the topper for this segment. I could have added some risers, but I didn’t feel like pausing the workout. The last segment is also floor cardio, but you hold the band out in front of you at shoulder width, keeping your hands in a fixed position as you move both of your arms with your feet. Both the warm up and cool down stretch are very short, but I’m not surprised since it’s such a short workout. Some may want to add time to both warming up and cooling down, but since this workout isn’t too intense, I didn’t feel the need to add on.

So, I found this to be a very pleasant workout, and Stephanie couldn’t be more encouraging and friendly. Definitely a no dread workout, and it would also make a nice warm up for strength work. Cardio – Move It is a nice way to start off PowerFit Harmony.

The workout breaks down like this:

Warm up
~4 minutes of marching, taps, side steps, kicks, squats, calf raises, knee raises, and dynamic stretching

Combo 1
Side taps with lateral raise, tap front, knee raise with arm curl, front kick with front punch, marches, calf raises

Combo 2
Step touch side to side, grapevines with overhead arms, side lunges with punches, front heel taps with arm push downs, jump rope

From the top, put combo 1 and 2 together

Combo 3 (using the band in the position of a step)
Basic step, step knee, knee repeaters, pivot step knee, pivot kick, step rear abduction, pivot hamstring curl,

Combo 4 (more band step work)
V-step, step hamstring curl, hamstring curl repeater,

From the top, put combo 3 and 4 together

Combo 5 (holding band in both hands, about shoulder width)
Sambas with arms to ceiling, step knee with arms pushing forward, side to side squats with arms pushing forward, side to side squats with arms circling up and around, hamstring curls

Cool down
~ 2 minutes of marching into some brief stretching

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